Serenity's Pull
by lizieaxes
Summary: Naomi Smith travels to Pandora six months after the events of the movie. How will Jake and the Na'vi move forward from the war and what is Naomi's connection to the former marine?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Author's note:** I was inspired by Avatar greatly. This is my own musing on what happens when the movie ends. I have introduced new characters and situations that will round out what happened in the movie and move the story forward. I hope it meets with everyone's approval.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own nor pretend to own Avatar or any other intellectual property of James Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox…

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_I can remember hearing the chaos of humanity in the streets of Pittsburgh while my mother pulled me through the crowds towards the mass transit vehicles. I can remember the screaming babies, shrieking sirens, and general din of a city that had not seen a blue sky in over 75 years. And, I can remember the look of irritation at the congestion of the transit vehicles my mother and I were attempting to board before light filled my eyes with its white hot power and all sound disappeared from my senses. The last thing I remember before even the light faded was the feeling of my mother's hand in mine going limp_.

Naomi opened her eyes in the dimly lit cryo pod to see droplets of condensation float by in the zero gravity of the Niagara Star Explorer. Her mouth felt as though she had filled it with cotton balls for the better part of six years. Once she had wiggled all her limbs and found no long lasting ill effects from her cryo stasis, she welcomed the opening of her pod into the much brighter cryo bay of the star ship that had obviously reached its destination.

The medic-tech was saying something to her on her right, probably going over post cryo guidelines and updates from what she could make out from the movement of his lips. He turned away from her and Naomi gave up trying to understand the scrubs clad man. She chose not to let the man know that she could not hear him, not wanting the inevitable look of pity and then the idiotic slow speaking people usually adopted after learning of her inability to hear.

She merely unhooked herself from the restraints that had kept her stationary for all those years and allowed herself the wonderful sensation of floating up to the locker with her name on it to retrieve her few personal belongings before exiting to the land shuttle that would transport her and the others to the surface of the moon: Pandora.

After the zero-g of the Niagara Star Explorer, the land shuttle's forced gravity was like a ton of bricks on Naomi's chest. It hurt to move, to breathe, it even hurt to think. She strapped herself in to the harness along with the others and waited for the preflight briefing. She was expecting a uniformed marine to give them a gruff explanation of the effects of Pandora's toxic air and all the other little details that new arrivals should be aware of. Instead, a plain-clothes civilian looking type stood in front of the group. This woman was never nor would ever be in any armed forces. Because she faced the group, Naomi was able to discern much of what she said.

"I am Doctor Helena George. You all may have been expecting a marine to give you this debriefing, but I am here to inform you of certain changes that have happened on Pandora while you all have been sleeping your lives away."

Naomi quickly glanced at her fellow new arrivals and saw pulses quicken, eyes widen, and nervous fidgeting increase as the Doctor continued her rather unconventional welcome.

"Six months ago, the indigenous population of Pandora, the Na'vi, decided that they had had enough of human interference in their lands and staged an uprising. The marine force for the main mining base here at Hell's Gate attacked the Na'vi in an attempt to either get them to move from their home tree or to wipe them out entirely, depending on who you ask."

A second glance around showed Naomi a range of emotions strewn on her fellows' faces. Some displayed simple shock; others found themselves nodding in agreement with either the actions of the marines or the Na'vi; and a few curled their lips in disgust, perhaps at the thought that these savage "blue monkeys" could repel an attack from humanity's best with a bunch of arrows and rocks.

"As it stands now, there is a truce between the Na'vi and our folks. The Omaticaya clan leaders are allowing supplies and only certain persons to land on Pandora. As such, most of you will have to return to the Niagara Star Explorer for her return mission to Earth, never setting foot on the surface. We have been in contact with the clan leaders and the new base commanders. All of your profiles have been reviewed by both sets of parties and here are those individuals that were agreed upon."

Anger made its way onto many faces around Naomi as the shock began to wear off. Most of these people would not be happy to have come six years through space only to have turn right around and spend another in so short a time. Naomi found herself sending silent prayers to whatever there was out there that would listen that she be one of those allowed to join the research teams already on Pandora. She leaned forward a little as she concentrated on Doctor Helena George's mouth, willing the other woman to move her lips in just the right pattern.

"Avery, Joshua. Anderson, Patricia. Heath, Samuel. Ramirez, Rosalynn. Smith, Naomi. Zanar, Keisha. Those are the individuals who will continue on this little expedition. If you did not hear your name, please remove yourself from this craft and return to the Niagara Star Explorer."

As she saw the Doctor's lips move to form her own name, Naomi relaxed in her seat and sent mental thank-yous out into the ether. She watched as more than half of the people who had intended on landing on Pandora angrily removed their harnesses and filed out of the seating area in a disgruntled mass. Naomi looked around at her fellow passengers, noting that none of the remaining people looked remotely military. She reflected on this, realizing that this was probably on purpose as the land shuttle disembarked from the Niagara Star Explorer and turned toward Pandora.

There were no windows in the land shuttle, nothing to signal where the occupants were in relation to the space around them. For most of the passengers, the change in sounds around the cabin were their only hint as to how close they were to their destination. Naomi sat in her seat, unable to hear these changes, but unlike the others, she was very aware of the other physical changes. She watched the other people for their reactions to the roar of atmosphere reentry and felt the metal wall near the bottom of her seat for the slight, but noticeable increase in warmth as the land shuttle scorched through Pandora's atmosphere. She could tell from the change in vibration of the hull when the land shuttle had made it through the outer layers and when it made its final decent towards the surface of the moon.

When all vibrations had ceased and the other occupants started looking around them expectantly, Doctor Helena George again made her way to the aisle in front of them.

"Please put your masks on, remember, you have less then four minutes of breathing the air on Pandora before your lungs seize up from the toxicity around you. We really don't need any more dead humans littering this planet, so be mindful of this, okay? You all will be briefed further inside by the base commander."

Naomi reached for the clear mask and accompanying oxygen pack that sat next to her seat. She placed the thing on her head and turned the dial at the bottom of the headset just the others around her were doing. She unhooked her rucksack from the clamps that had held it in place on the flight down. Joining the line of six people, those that were chosen and the Doctor, Naomi put her pack on her back as the bay doors opened in front of her.

The light that made its way through that first tiny crack between the doors was so bright it was almost blinding. She smiled a little as she thought how ironic, or at least fitting that this new chapter in her life was marked by blazing bright light, just as it had done before when she was a child and the explosion had taken her hearing and mother from her in one fell swoop.

This light, however, was not accompanied by searing heat and pain. Blinking their eyes in the first natural light they had seen in over six years, the new arrivals to Pandora filed out of the land shuttle and onto the surface of the lush moon, getting their first glimpse at the expensive jungles and foreign landscape they would now call home. Slowly opening her eyes after allowing them readjust themselves to this brightness, Naomi followed the others across the landing field towards the building that seemed oddly out of place in this wild world. She nodded to herself and took a deep breath of the oxygen rich air being pumped through her mask as she readied herself for the next part of this adventure and whatever surprises the future might hold.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**AN:** Thank you SO much to everyone that reviewed this story and all those that put it on their alerts and added it to their favorites. You all rock. It makes me very happy to hear that you enjoy the story so far!

I will try and update this story at least once a week. It might get difficult as Grad school could get in the way, but I foresee this story being a nice procrastination tool and we all know how wonderful those can be.

That being said, here is Chapter 2, please read, review, and enjoy!

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_My mother never talked about my father except to say his name as though it were a curse. Whenever anything went seriously wrong, she would yell out "Sam!" To me, he was never anything more than an image my mother showed me once and the originator of my last name. Lying in the hospital after the explosions, my four and a half year self held a brief hope that he would learn of my predicament. I imagined that he would walk through my hospital door, pull back the depressingly yellow curtain and save me from an unknown future. I can remember the quickening of my heartbeat, the flow of heat that washed through me every time the door opened. I can also remember finally giving up hope, as my father never entered that doorway, never pulled back that curtain, never saved me from the unknown. _

The two men looked angry. One, in an expensive looking suit seemed to be gesturing strongly in the direction of the other. Naomi could not tell what was being said as both men's faces were turned away from her. What she could determine was that the other man, tall and lanky, did not care for what the impeccably dressed man had to say. Finally, as if just noticing the new arrivals to the mess hall, the tall lanky man dismissed the other with a rude shove and stood to face the group.

He took a moment to look over the six people sitting at the mess hall tables. His eyes fell on Naomi and appeared to linger a little before moving on to the man sitting next to her. He nodded at someone behind them and a woman in a lab coat hurried forward. As he began to talk, the woman next to him used the most modern form of American Sign Language to communicate what was being said. Naomi smiled to herself a bit as she realized that this addition was entirely for her benefit.

"I am Norm Spellman, co-director of this facility. My partner in crime here," Norm nodded to a man standing at the back of the mess hall as several of the assembled staff smiled conspiratorially, " is Dr. Max Patel. Together we oversee all of Hell's Gate's scientific endeavors. As you should know from your briefing aboard the land shuttle, the military and subsequently the corporate entities that were here are here no longer. We are attempting to run this facility in a scientific direction only. This is where you all come in. Please find your personal bunks and report to either the Med lab or the Science wing when you are settled in."

With his speech duties complete, Norm walked down the aisle towards Dr. Patel. The two turned away from the rest of the people, walking briskly down the hall, their heads and arms showing that they were discussing something in a rather worried and heated manner.

Naomi watched them as they rounded a corner and disappeared then turned her attention to the windows at the front of the mess hall. Norm had been standing in front of them, as had his interpreter, and with her senses focused on those two individuals, Naomi had yet to really look around. Now she did and as she gazed at the luscious jungle beyond the gated perimeter, Naomi felt the prickling of tears in her eyes.

No where on Earth was there anything like those jungles. No where on Earth was nature able to run free and dominate the landscape as it did here on Pandora. Out on the horizon, Polyphemus' giant shadow floated over the jungle, like a guardian titan hovering over the small Pandora moon.

A hand touched her shoulder causing Naomi to jump slightly, so immersed in the world outside of Hell's gate was she that she had not noticed the interpreter walking over to her.

"I am Hannah McGuire," signed the woman. "Please follow me to your quarters so we can drop your belongings off and get you over to the science wing." Hannah McGuire smiled kindly at Naomi. She was slightly taller than Naomi with curly red hair, pulled back in a messy braid. She waited for Naomi to pick her sack up before turning and walking down the opposite hall that Norm and Dr. Patel had gone.

Arriving in the Science wing after a quick introduction to her bunkmate and a trip to the restroom, Naomi was struck with the shear amount of visual stimulation in the front room alone. There were lights of all kinds on the machinery, blinking and stable, all different colors. As with the rest of the compound, this room only smelled of sterility and metal. She joined Patricia Anderson and Joshua Avery who were both sitting on stools, seemingly in an animated discussion about the flora and fauna of Pandora, based on the lip movements that Naomi could see.

Patricia turned to Naomi as she approached and exaggeratedly mouthed, "Hello." Naomi nodded to her in a returned greeting and settled on the empty stool next to the other woman. Hannah McGuire had left her at the Science wing door to return to her regular duties up in the control tower to see that the land shuttle got off ok on its return trip up to the Niagara Star Explorer.

"So, have you been deaf your entire life?" Patricia mouth slowly, looking as though the effort to slow her speech pattern down would give her permanent worry wrinkles above the bridge of her nose. She cocked her head, letting her dark smooth hair tilt to one side, waiting for Naomi to answer.

Naomi blinked, not quite expecting the blunt question, but then again, Patricia and most of the staff left on Pandora were science types, and therefore interested in answers and not tact. Naomi took a minute to focus on how she wanted her mouth and tongue to move as she attempted to answer the question posed.

"I loth my 'earin when I wah four yearth ol'," Naomi managed to vocalize. It was like executing oral gymnastics. The sounds, which Naomi could not hear, were produced by exact placement of her tongue in various positions on the soft palate of her mouth, or behind her teeth. Getting the right positions of the tongue to work with the movements of her lips and coordinate with her vocal cords was actually quite a challenge. Naomi had to consciously think about every aspect of speech and the only way she could tell if her efforts made any sense at all had been to focus on the other person and understand their micro facial and gross body gestures that would let Naomi know if she was successful.

Naomi smiled as Patricia looked first confused then moved in the telltale signs of understanding as she appeared to gasp in air and shook her head. The worry wrinkles in the woman's forehead deepened as she leaned forward and put a caramel colored hand on Naomi's knee.

"I am so sorry. That must have been very hard on you."

"I cope't. I ca' rea lips an' fashul geth-ters. Ith why I am 'ear," Naomi stuttered out, nodding at the Science wing at large. She gave the other woman a reassuring smile as she caught site of Norm heading towards them. He had three displays in his hands, most likely their profiles and information.

"Alright, Joshua and Naomi will be coming with me to your avatars. Patricia, you will go ahead and report to Dr. Patel over there by the hub station." Norm handed Patricia her file. She nodded, turned and patted Naomi on the knee again and gave her a "thumbs up" as she headed out of the front room and into the bright link up room.

Naomi and Joshua followed Norm over to the rear of the front room where two enormous tanks held the floating, lifeless looking bodies of the avatars. Naomi looked for a second at the male before turning quickly to the female in the tank across the aisle. She approached it slowly, scanning the body from the giant blue feet up. The legs had a myriad of blue stripes intermixed with dark purple dots that formed solid patches here and there. The hips rounded into the abdomen, which flexed as the body twitched a little in the chemical solution it was suspended in. Naomi was amused to note that this avatar body was in a tad better shape than her own.

She was interested to see that the female avatar body had the external mammary glands just as humans do. She knew from reading and preparation for the trip that native Na'vi females had them as well. She did not notice any hair on the avatar body that she could discern. She wondered if the Na'vi produced milk like humans did and if so, could they be considered mammals in the strictest sense?

The arms were slightly longer in relation to the body than human arms. These creatures still used all their limbs to move about the jungle. Naomi bent over and twisted her head to see under the body and get a view of one of the strangest appendages the avatar body possessed that Naomi's small human body did not; the tail. It protruded as an extension of the spine. A long hairy patch poked out of the end, much like a lion's tail.

Naomi let her eyes finally reach the avatar's face. She leaned in to the curved glass of the tank and looked in wonder at a face that looked just like her but completely alien, all at once. Of course there were the blue hued stripes, as there were over the rest of the body, but the flattened nose and highly positioned ears were a shock to see. Naomi felt as though she wanted to trace the features, feel a comparison. How would this creature's skin feel different than her own human skin? Would the hair feel like human hair, or more like fur? And how had a biological evolution decided to form part of the hair into a perfect braid to hide the sensitive nerve endings that allowed the Na'vi to connect, literally, to their world?

A hand on her shoulder brought Naomi back from her musings as Norm stood next to her, looking into the tank. He turned to her and squeezed her shoulder kindly.

"She looks like you," he said as he nodded at the floating avatar. Naomi simply nodded in return, taking one last glance at the thing before letting Norm lead her back to the stools they had started on. She and Joshua, who looked like a kid in a candy store after viewing his own avatar allowed technicians to take final readings and various samples of hair for their own purposes.

Once they were finished, Norm and Dr. Patel approached the two avatar drivers.

"We can have your avatars ready for you to take your first run tomorrow morning," Dr. Patel stated and laughed a little as Joshua pumped his fist in the air. "I would suggest that you both get a good night's sleep and some decent chow in you before then, as you will probably find those two things fleeting from now on. Go on with you."

Dr. Patel literally shooed the two eager drivers out of the Science wing. Naomi walked down the hall towards her apartment intent on a shower before heading back to the mess hall for some semblance of what they called food. After all, she had not taken a bath in a little under six years and she felt it was high time to get cleaned up. Tonight she would wash the grime of cryo, zero-g, and general travel away. Tomorrow, Naomi would link with her avatar for the first time. And, as Naomi looked in the small mirror next the shower at her reflection, she thought that tomorrow she would be able to hear for the first time in over fifteen years as well.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**AN:** I am sorry this update was a little late. Not feeling well really cramps a writer's style. However, I am feeling better so here we are. I would like thank EVERYONE who reviewed, alerted, and favorited this story. Again, you all rock my world. Thank you for your kind words and support.

This chapter will be longer than the previous two as I was really interested in exploring the process of waking up in a new body. I hope I did it justice and that you all enjoy the experience as much as I think Naomi will…

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_I can remember my mother teaching me to spell my first name. She patiently had me learn the letters and their sounds. I remember being so proud to show her my first successful attempt at writing my name on my own without her help. And, I remember that she never got the chance to teach me my last name. So, when the Child Services people came to see me in the hospital after the explosion, I was only able to write my first name for them. I remember writing it over and over, as though by repeating this action that my mother had so lovingly taught me, I could keep her alive some how. I can also remember my last name, the one my mother gave me as the only reminder of a father I never met. The Child Services people did not know this last name and as I could not hear their questions, hear my own response, or spell it out, they gave me a new last name. But, I have always identified myself with my true last name, at least inside my own mind. It was this name that brought me to Pandora in the first place. My skills in anthropology and gesticulative ethnography were only the means with which to get here._

"They look like coffins."

Joshua stood on the opposite side of a link pod from Naomi looking down at the white capsule. Naomi simply nodded and tried to give him a reassuring smile. The link pods did indeed strongly resemble coffins, at least when they were closed. Naomi ran her hands along the smooth surface, not quite believing what she was about to do. Slight vibrations in the floor made her look up just as Dr. Patel, Norm, and Patricia made their way over to the two avatar drivers.

Patricia carried two display charts and looked possibly more excited than either Joshua or Naomi. She had come to Pandora as a neural specialist to assist in the avatar program. The two women had bonded a little over what passed as breakfast in the mess hall. Patricia had filled Naomi in on why she was there while Naomi taught Patricia a few signs. Patricia could now sign "hello," "goodbye," and "bathroom" with proficiency.

She signed "hello" now with her free hand as she came to stand in front of the link pod with the two men beside her. Naomi nodded and returned the greeting as Norm opened his mouth to speak.

"This will be your first link up with your real avatars. I know you logged many hundreds of simulation hours between the two of you, so there should be no real problem with the motor responsiveness. There will be differences between the simulated avatar experience and the real thing. Believe me." Norm waggled his eyebrows up and down as he graced them with a mischievous smile. Turning to face her directly, Norm placed his hand on Naomi's shoulder in a conspiratorial way leaning in so she could clearly see what he was saying.

"Naomi, you will notice this difference in a much greater way than Joshua here or almost anyone that has done this before." Norm's smile softened and seemed to grow wistful. "There have been a few before you that found freedom with their avatars that their human bodies could not afford. The simulator could not give this experience justice for you, as it could not simulate hearing for your human ears. Just relax and enjoy the experience, ok?"

Norm gave Naomi a pat on the shoulder as he turned to open the link pod and start the warm up sequence for the machinery. Dr. Patel had taken Joshua to the next pod over and was giving the young man a pep talk as he did the same preparations for Joshua's link pod that Norm was doing for Naomi's.

Patricia stood between the two pods practically bouncing up and down like a little girl about to see a very cool show. Her smile was as wide as her face would allow, white teeth gleaming. Dr. Patel joined her again, the prep done on the pods. Naomi watched as he kindly told Patricia to breathe and relax, putting a stabilizing hand on her elbow to slow the bouncing.

Naomi wondered why she herself didn't seem to be as obviously excited about all this. She took a moment as Norm was finishing up with her pod to explore this and realized that she still did not or could not imagine what the next few hours would be like. Yes, she had done over two hundred hours in the simulator, but as Norm had said, the real experience would be completely different than any computer could concoct.

Norm turned to her, finally finished with the warm up sequence on the pod and patted the glowing green bio gel that made up the bed inside the pod. This was the same as the simulator, so there was no surprise for Naomi at the springy cold feeling. She poked at it anyway, just to see the absorption of energy. The gel acted as both a buffer for movement and a stabilizer for the sleeping human form inside. The human body automatically locks all muscle movement during sleep to prevent injury, but there is inevitable twitching. As the avatar driver would be in deep REM, the gel allowed the skin to breathe and protected the fragile human form. Unfelt by the driver, it also was programmed to ripple slightly in timed intervals to encourage continued blood flow through the limbs. In real sleep, a human moves around to allow this blood flow. Here, it was the work of machines.

Naomi looked up to see Joshua already sitting in his pod, allowing Patricia to attach the diodes to his head. These diodes were only used on the first link up to ensure connectivity and monitor brain function. After this first test run, the link between avatar and human should be strong and stable, the diodes hopefully not needed.

Hefting herself easily up onto the gel bed, Naomi settled herself in the human shaped hole. She aligned her legs and arms with the gel shape and laid her head back on the cushioned gel headrest. Norm settled the wire net over her chest and checked the diodes attached to her forehead. Nodding to himself that everything was as it should be, Norm looked down at Naomi, uttering the obligatory phrase he himself had heard many times before, "Just try to let your mind go blank. Sweat dreams."

As the lid descended and the inside of the pod was plunged into an eerie green darkness, Naomi closed her eyes against the soft glow. The gel had mild smell of plastic and sweat, almost like a karate studio floor, but less unpleasant. She thought of those lucky individuals that had used this pod before her and as she let her mind focus on those vague thoughts, she slipped into REM sleep.

The tunnel of pulsating light was expected from the simulator. That didn't mean that it wasn't breathtakingly beautiful and surreal at the same time. Naomi was not aware of feeling really anything except excitement and awe as she traveled, seemingly at high speed, through this worm hole of consciousness. The light grew in intensity, nearing a painful point, if she had eyes to see it with. And, just as the light grew to its peek, it vanished and she was left in darkness.

The first thing that Naomi became aware of was her own breathing. It wasn't just her lungs moving air in and out, expanding and collapsing to do so. It wasn't the feeling of her chest rising and falling or the muscles and sinews pulling on her ribs as this natural body movement took place. It was the sound of her own breath passing through her nasal cavities, escaping into the atmosphere and then being sucked back in. Naomi listening to the whistling whoosh as she drew another breath in and let yet another out.

She could feel a warm wetness around her closed eyes that slid down her cheek and she realized that she was crying. The wonder of being able to hear her own body functions, the mysteries of breathing, were perhaps the most beautiful thing she had ever experienced. Naomi had never been particularly spiritual, anthropology ruling most of her adult life, but this, right now, was what she imagined being close to God would be like.

Taking another breath in, Naomi let herself hear more. Underneath the swish of air was the deep reverberating thump of her own heartbeat. If she concentrated hard enough, she could feel the blood flow through the arteries and veins in time with the thumping in her ears.

A gloved finger touched her face where the wetness of her tears had streaked on the skin. "Naomi, are you alright? Can you open your eyes for us?" Naomi did as requested. She looked up into the somewhat small looking mask covered face hovering above her and blinked as her eyes got used to the light in the room. She felt a bubbling rumble roil up from somewhere inside of her and heard the explosive release of air and noise as she realized two things; she was laughing and that she had understood the spoken request with her ears and brain working in perfect unison. New tears clouded her vision for a moment and streamed down her cheeks, running on the slant of her face and into her ears. The warmth of the wet tears fading as they reached the ears, pooling in coldness.

Naomi didn't care. It was like every emotion was trying to squeeze itself out all at once. She just let the tears roll and the laughter continue, it was all she could manage to do as her brain came to terms with her body's ability to hear.

Eventually, Naomi became aware of that same gloved hand rubbing her arm in comfort. She sniffled and reached to wipe the moisture away from her face and her ears. She stopped suddenly though as a large blue thing swayed into focus. Disjointedly, Naomi realized it was her own arm. Amazed at this new discovery, she flexed the fingers and moved the joints, starting with the wrist. Once satisfied that that it indeed was attached to her and seemed to be in working order, she completed the task which she had started out doing and wiped her hand across her face.

The masked doctor leaned over her again, reached out, and snapped loudly on her left then right side. Naomi flinched, as the sound was jarring and loud. The man smiled at her, and then looked up at someone else saying, "auditory responses are within normal parameters and forelimb muscular dexterity seems to be where it should be."

Naomi contented herself to just stare up at the man, amazed that she was still reading his lips even while she could hear what he was saying. She found herself memorizing the sounds that matched the movement of the lips.

The man looked down again and cocked his head in confusion, obviously not understanding why Naomi was moving her own lips in funny shapes, as she tried to imagine what sound those shapes would make.

"Can you sit up for me?" The doctor reached out his hands, one he held out for Naomi to grab and the other he tucked behind her back to help her shift to a vertical position.

Naomi felt the muscles in her abdomen flex and contract as she sat up on the gurney. Once in this position she was able to look around her. She noticed the window to the science lab where Patricia and Dr. Patel stood with display charts in hand. They were nodding to each other and looking expectantly down into the avatar medical bay. Patricia caught sight of Naomi's gaze and waved cheerfully down at her.

Naomi smiled up at the two scientists, feeling her lips slide across her teeth. She opened her mouth a little and let her tongue run along them as well, feeling the unfamiliar elongated canines on the top and the matching groves on the bottom that allowed the mouth to close smoothly. She shook her head as she thought of the computer simulation exercises she had endured and how they had not even come close to the very real feeling of this body and the environment around her.

"Ok Naomi, can you swing your legs around now and touch them to the floor?"

Again, Naomi responded as requested and marveled in the feeling of muscle and bone moving smoothly to glide her long blue legs over the side of the gurney. Her blue feet were bare and as she set them on the smooth tiled floor of the medical bay, she felt the coolness of the ground on her soles. Staring down at these newfound appendages, she wiggled her toes and giggled again at all the new sensations permeating her existence, not the least of which was the ability to hear and understand the words of the doctor.

That same gloved hand gently grabbed her chin and lifted her face to meet the doctor's. It was sort of funny that this grown man was as tall standing up as Naomi was sitting. She noticed how small those hands now looked and how fragile this little doctor appeared to be. He shown a light in her eyes quickly, checking the iris' response to stimulus. Apparently happy with the results he nodded to himself and typed something in to the display screen next to the gurney.

Naomi calmly allowed the man to continue his physical examination of her as he shined light into her ears to check for any abnormalities there. She was amused to note that she had to bend over slightly to allow the doctor to do this. He then moved on to reflex response as he knocked his little plastic hammer against her knees. Naomi watched in fascination as her leg flung up and out as the doctor hit the pressure point just below the kneecap.

She allowed him to systematically bend all her joints starting with the pinky finger on her right hand, moving across to her elbow and shoulder and next, to the other side of her body. As he was doing this, Naomi tried to focus on different sounds around her, expanding her attention outwards from her own breathing. There was her heartbeat again, but louder was a sort of high pitched humming. She cocked her head to see if she could pinpoint where it was coming from without looking away from what the doctor was doing with her left elbow.

Naomi felt the minute muscles that manipulated ear movement shift as the cat-like ears of the avatar turned to find the noise. As the doctor started bending her left thumb, she realized the high pitch humming was really coming from two places. One was all around her at chest level and the other was above her. She first looked around and saw the machinery of the medical bay. Some of the humming, the softer part of the noise seemed to be coming from those machines. Looking up, Naomi realized that the other part of the high-pitched noise was coming from the light fixtures. She was surprised to realize that she did not entirely enjoy these noises. It was not that she didn't enjoy hearing them, but the noises themselves somehow felt a little wrong to her. Perhaps, she reasoned, it was just because she was new to hearing these things.

"Ok, Naomi. Here comes the big test. I want you to try and stand up now."

Naomi's attention shifted swiftly back to the little doctor. He looked at her and held his arms out for her to steady herself with. She wrapped her much larger fingers around his forearms and shifted her own wait slowly forward. It was sort of like trying to stand up after being knocked in the head too hard. You weren't certain if your legs would remember your weight or how to balance.

As she stood up, Naomi had a moment of vertigo, as everything in the room seems to shrink away from her. The doctor, who had appeared small before, now looked almost cartoonishly little. The machinery looked like it was built for a doll. Only the gurney behind her looked proper sized. Naomi blinked a few times, willing the dizziness to recede. This part of the avatar experience had been covered in the simulations thoroughly, so Naomi knew it was just a matter of letting her mind adjust to the change in vertical circumstances.

When the feeling of being off balance faded, Naomi looked down at the doctor, somewhat surprised to find him still there until she realized that she had him by the arms in what looked like a painfully tight grip. Before she even knew what she was doing she heard a low but pleasant sounding voice say, "Sorry."

The doctor rubbed his arms briskly for a second before looking up and replying, "That's alright. Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you didn't topple like a tree."

Naomi blinked down at him wondering whom he was talking to. Then her eyebrows raised up in astonishment as she realized that the voice she had heard had been her own. She had spoken the apology for hurting the doctor without even thinking about it. It had just flowed from her brain to her mouth and out into the world in anatomical precision. She had just spoken without having to think where her tongue needed to go, without positioning her lips just so and concentrating on the movement of her vocal cords. It had just slipped out so naturally that she was taken aback by the ease of it all.

She found herself getting dizzy again as this new revelation was just a little too much to handle on top of everything else. Naomi plopped back down on the gurney as new tears started flowing down her cheeks and the laughter rumbled back up. She was laughing so hard and loud that the sounds shifted and she began sobbing. The poor doctor couldn't do anything for her but pat her on the back and use his sleeve to help wipe some the tears away. Every time Naomi would start to calm down, she would realize that the sounds she heard were coming from her own body, her own throat and lungs, and the laughing/sobbing/crying would start anew.

Determined to join her fellow avatars at some point in the day, Naomi finally managed to get a handle on her emotions. Besides, she reasoned with her self, she still had an entire world of sounds outside this room to discover. She consciously slowed her breathing and was able to blink aside the last of the tears. Experimentally, she opened her mouth and tried to speak again.

"Sorry. This is the first time I am hearing my own voice since I was four and a half."

The doctor nodded kindly and patted her on the shoulder. He smiled as he positioned himself in front of her again, arms reached out for support like before. Naomi felt the emotion bubble up again as she pronounced this sentence, again marveling at the seamless connection between brain, mouth, and ears, but she determinedly stamped it down as she again grasped the doctor's arms. This second time, she was only dizzy for a few moments before the body's equilibrium kicked in.

"Ok, Naomi, I am going to let go now. I want you to stand there until you are sure of your balance, and then you are going to walk to me." The doctor moved a little away from her, going to stand next to the other gurney that Joshua had been on. She looked around the little room as she realized the other avatar was no longer there. He must have finished his examination a while ago and been released out into the avatar paddock with his doctor in tow. Naomi was alone in the medical bay with her own doctor. Even Dr. Patel and Patricia had left the observation window up above. Naomi wondered briefly how long it had been since she had woken up. To her, it felt like a lifetime of new discoveries and emotional outbursts. Looking at the doctor, who patiently waited for her, she felt sorry that she had taken his time like this when Naomi was sure he had other things he needed to do.

Determined to let him get to his other duties without any more delays, Naomi wobbled her way over to him. Walking was interesting. Her mind was used to the movement of her human body, not this lanky avatar. As she reached him, the doctor smiled and backed up to the door that Naomi had not noticed was there. She smiled and worked her way towards him again. This time she wobbled slightly less on her long legs, allowing the natural flow of body movement to take over her rational thinking brain.

"Good, Naomi. Remember to allow your mind and body to work together. Don't think about what you have to do too much before you do it, and you should be just fine." The doctor reached behind him, unlocking the door and moving in to the hallway, all the while forcing Naomi to walk to keep up with him. She grew more confident in her motions as she stopped trying to consciously control her muscles. She peeked behind her as they reached the end of another long corridor and giggled at the blue tail seemingly poking out of her rear end. Distractedly, she watched the tail bounce along as she moved forward. Naomi noticed how it perfectly counterbalanced her forward and side motions. She made a mental note to test out how well the thing performed in the open.

The doctor led her to what looked like a locker room. He waved her inside and told her he would wait outside while she changed. Naomi walked into the room, noting the elongated lockers with names on them. It reminded her of waking up only a few days ago on the Niagara Star Explorer. Had that really only been a few days ago? Logically it must have, but right now, it felt like a lifetime ago.

Again, Naomi noticed that Joshua must have already been through here and was gone. She sighed as she found her locker. Her name was neatly stenciled on the metal surface. Upon opening the thing, she found a khaki field outfit made to fit the avatar. It even had a convenient hole in the rear for her tail. Getting the clothing on was a challenge, as she had not yet mastered the movements and coordination of the avatar. After managing to struggle into the clothes properly, Naomi went to the bathroom, located off to the side of the locker room. Another set of challenges later and she had relieved herself without much incident. Walking up to the sink and washing her hands, Naomi took an opportunity to look in the mirror.

It was like wearing a mask for Halloween and looking in the mirror. She didn't recognize the face staring back at her. It was blue and big and funny shaped. She smiled at the mirror and watched as her reflection slid its lips and mimicked her movements. Naomi wiggled her ears and nodded her head up and down, just to make sure this was really herself she was looking at.

Drying her hands on her pants, she walked back out to the locker room, again feeling the strange sense of emotional rawness and a slip on reality. The doctor was where he said he would be as Naomi pushed the door open. He looked her up and down, nodded to himself that she looked all right and led the way down yet another hallway. The door at the end of this one, however, was much thicker than the others.

Reaching it, the doctor turned to Naomi. He smiled up at her with a twitching of his eyebrows. "Now you may go out and play with the rest of the kitties." He opened the latch on the door, swinging it outwards into the bright sunlight. Naomi gazed in wonder at the vivid colors that awaited her. The warm fragrant air drifted to her nose. And, the sounds of people laughing, far away animals honking, and machinery running reached her ears. She stepped out onto the soft surface of the planet. Behind her, the hallway seemed dark and dreary compared to the bright wonderfulness of the world Naomi found herself in. She closed her eyes and lifted her head to feel the warmth of the real air on her face and the gentle breeze that ruffled her clothing. It was as though she had never known what a natural wind felt like, never smelled growing things, never sensed the awesomeness of life around her before now.

As she kept her eyes closed, Naomi allowed her ears to discover the world, hearing the buzz of flying things and wind rustling the leaves of the plants near by. If she focused in she could hear her own breathing again, and softer, her heartbeat thumping steadily in her chest. But under all of this, Naomi heard a barely audible hum. This was not the high-pitched uncomfortable buzzing of machinery like in the medical bay. This was deeper. She was not even sure it was a noise, but she could just feel it on the peripheral of her hearing, the low vibrations, thrumming somewhere deep in her consciousness. They seemed to emanate from both inside Naomi and all around her all at the same time. It was as though the entire world vibrated on a sub-frequency as energy flowed over, around, and through it.

Naomi opened her eyes in amazement. The doctor, who had been watching her for any negative physical reactions now laughed quietly. He looked out over the paddock and back up at Naomi. Smiling, he waved his hand, indicating the bright light and lush vegetation of this world.

"Welcome to the _real_ Pandora."


End file.
